


Heatstroke

by steelballrun



Series: Love Imitates Art [2]
Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Canon Compliant, M/M, Trans Character, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-18
Updated: 2018-02-18
Packaged: 2019-03-20 15:12:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13720344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/steelballrun/pseuds/steelballrun
Summary: Ryuji wonders why the hell someone would want to wear a sweater on the beach.(reading Inspiration is recommended but not required. set during the first beach episode, so spoilers up to the fourth castle)





	Heatstroke

**Author's Note:**

> when nobody makes content for what you think is the best trans headcanon so you gotta do it your fuckin self

It's sweltering hot outside, and Ryuji flops down onto the sand face-first under their beach umbrella.  
"Bury me right here," he groans, about ready to die of heatstroke. "It's _sooo_ effin' hot out here."  
"If you insist," replies Futaba innocently, kicking a few sun-baked pebbles onto his back.  
He could swear he hears a sizzling noise from his own skin, and rolls away from her. "Hot! Dammit, Futaba!"  
"You're getting covered in sand," Makoto scolds him as he writhes on the ground, his sweat picking up bits of sand and shells and sticking them to his skin.  
Ann giggles. "You're like a raw shrimp in tempura bits."  
"Glad my pain's a source of entertainment for you," mutters Ryuji, getting up and brushing himself off. "Ugh, it's too frickin' _hot!_ Let's go get a giant box of popsicles. Akira, buddy, you in?"  
"They'd all melt, wouldn't they?"  
_Bastard! Betrayed again..._  
The girls are spreading out their array of folding chairs and towels, while Yusuke sets himself up next to the group's portable cooler under the umbrella. "Good thing I brought my sketchbook." He sits down on the ground against the umbrella's pole. "The lighting is quite nice this time of day."  
"Uh, dude, aren't you gonna come swimming, or play volleyball, or something?" Ryuji wonders how he's not boiling in that sweater.  
"My sweater would get wet."  
"Okay, yeah, but why the hell are..." _You know what, never mind._ "Alright, Yuu. See ya later, yeah?"  
"Goodbye."  
"Mona, are you coming?" Ann asks the black cat, who looks about as dead as Ryuji.  
"And get stomped on by all those people? No thanks!"  
"Wouldn't he not like getting his fur wet?" Makoto says thoughtfully. "Let's just bring him back a fish."  
"I'm not a cat!" protests the... well, cat. Ryuji heads to the water with Ann, Makoto, and Akira.

~

"You're terrible at this," notes Akira as Ryuji misses his third easy spike in a row. The rainbow-colored beach ball bounces harmlessly onto the sand.  
"Woo-hoo! That's ten-six!" Ann calls happily.  
He kicks the ball over to the girls' side of the net. "I'm an injured athlete," he complains. Ryuji doesn't mention that the time spent in the water was probably good for his knee injury.  
"Why don't we take a break for lunch?" Makoto suggests, picking up the ball and walking around the net over to them. "It must be past noon by now."  
Ann ducks under the net. "Wow, we wrecked you guys. But I _am_ pretty hungry..."  
"When are you not?" Ryuji scoffs.  
"Excuse you! I have a healthy appetite!"  
The two of them bicker like five-year-olds the whole way back to Futaba and Yusuke. Oh, and Morgana too, Ryuji supposes.  
When they return, Yusuke has gone through a fifth of his sketchbook already, pages filled with gesture drawings of people playing beach volleyball or doing a backstroke. He is covered in a not-so-thin layer of sweat.  
"Someone say something to Inari," Futaba mutters through a mouthful of instant ramen. "He's in some kinda trance."  
"Wait, seriously?" Ann rushes over. "Hey, Yusuke-kun! What's wrong?"  
Ryuji doesn't even have time to wonder how she's eating hot noodles in this weather. "Yuu, what's up? Hey!"  
"I am not in a _trance_ ," the artist says irritably, putting down his book and pencils. "I was only thinking. Don't be dramatic."  
"Are _you_ of all people really saying that, dude?" Ryuji can't help but say. He offers a hand to his... friend? Boyfriend? Something?  
He offers a hand to Yusuke, at any rate. The other boy takes it gratefully and stands, somewhat unsteadily. "I may need... to go to the changing room for a few moments."  
And he's gone. Even though Ryuji leaves Futaba (wait, where's Mona?) with their belongings and goes to buy yakisoba with the rest of the group, his thoughts still wander towards the spidery wooden changing stalls at the other end of the beach.  
_Is Yuu okay?_ he wonders as he waits in line and Ann chats with Akira.  
_Is he back with Futaba yet?_ he muses when they reach the front of the line.  
_Is he gonna get heatstroke from that sweater?_ he ponders while paying for his beef yakisoba (and Yusuke's tofu one, because they all know he's going to do something stupid with his money).  
_Shit, he's not back yet,_ he realizes once they've gotten their food and the umbrella is in sight.  
Just as he puts the food on one of the chairs, there's a hand on his shoulder.  
"You should go check on him," says Akira gently.  
"Dude..." Ryuji gazes back into his friend's eyes. "That's creepy. Stop reading my mind."  
But of course Ryuji goes to check on Yusuke anyway, a world away in the respite of his dirty changing stall.  
The sand on the concrete floor digs into the soles of his feet painfully as he squats down to look for Yusuke's blue flip-flops under the stall doors. _I must look like a total perv right now._  
A pair of long, dainty feet. Maybe...? No, those are painted toenails. Not Yusuke.  
Two giant, hairy feet. Definitely not Yusuke.  
"Hey, Yuu?" he calls hesitantly. "Yusuke?"  
The sound of a zipper and some slight rustling from the very last stall, right up against the wall. The door opens.  
"Is that you, Ryuji?"  
Finally, a glimpse of Yusuke...  
...  
...  
...'s hood.  
The artist is slouched over, hood pulled halfway over his face, and sweater inside out.  
"Did you need me for something?"  
_Dude, stop trying to play it cool... I'm begging you._  
"Yuu, lemme in." Ryuji steps into the stall with him and closes the door. "What's the matter? Why're you in here all alone?"  
_Now_ who's trying to play it cool? Every alarm bell in his body is going off at both the close quarters and the thought of what might happen if someone were to find them like this.  
Oblivious as ever, Yusuke takes his hood off. "I simply needed to rest a little."  
"Dude, you look like you're in _so_ much pain right now."  
"Oh?" He has his arms crossed tightly, seeming rather torn.  
For better or for worse, Yusuke is impressively bad at hiding things.  
"Listen, man, I'm not gonna force you to tell me nothin', but we're all worried about you." Ryuji puts his hands in the pockets of his swim trunks. "Uh... 'specially me. 'S kinda funny, though, this's a lot like when we first... uh, that one time with the flowers..."  
The other boy's expression remains just as conflicted. Ryuji's stomach twists a tiny bit to see the pain clear in his eyes.  
"Hey, Yuu."  
Yusuke looks at him with indecision that Ryuji's never seen on his face before.  
"Why not... just bite the bullet? I promise I won't judge ya or nothin'. Ma's honor. Anythin' you gotta say, I'm listenin'."  
"You would..." Yusuke frowns. "There are certain things that... that would make you not want to be with me. It may be best if--"  
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" He interrupts his boyfriend-not-boyfriend as soon as he realizes where this is going. "Slow down! I ain't even heard what you gotta say yet. 'S not like you killed someone."  
Yusuke is silent.  
"Yuu...? You didn't--"  
"I didn't kill anyone," says the other boy, sounding more like his usual self. "I am just..."  
He takes a deep breath. "I am not who you thought I was."  
Ryuji cocks his head to the side. Yusuke is just... Yusuke, isn't he? How different could he be?  
Finally standing up straight-- wait, what's that on his chest?-- Yusuke reaches into his pocket and pulls out a piece of navy blue cloth. Ryuji has seen one of those, somewhere ages ago.  
"A binder," he says. "For your chest."  
"This is what I meant." Yusuke's face is impassive, but his voice shakes slightly. "I am--"  
"Exactly who I know you are." Ryuji cuts him off, looking up at Yusuke with a smile. "Come on, dude. I thought you were gonna say something way worse than that."  
"You don't mean you knew...?" Yusuke steps back-- as much as he can, anyway, in this tiny stall.  
"What? Nah, I had no clue you were trans." Ryuji scratches his head sheepishly. "Just... I dunno, I've been thinkin' about, like... why you never wanted to go past makin' out, and how I'd ask about it an' all that shit, but... I guess I get it now."  
A frown now. "You had no idea at all? That I was... that I'm not..."  
Looking up at the artist, Ryuji wonders if maybe he should, as Ma always tells him, be honest.  
"Yuu, honestly it doesn't really matter much to me what you got down there, or up there, or... anywhere, really." _I sound like an idiot right now._ "I don't think any of us knew shit. Except maybe Akira. Dude knows everything."  
"He is rather astute," agrees Yusuke in mild amusement. "I... I have to say I didn't expect this reaction from you."  
"You thought I was a total dick?"  
"N-- no!"  
It seems that Yusuke has picked up some of Akira's astuteness, because he realizes that Ryuji was joking. "I ask that you don't tease me like that."  
"Aw, but you're so cute when you're flustered." Ryuji lets out a loud laugh. "Come on, man, let's go back, 'kay? Those guys must be worried as hell."  
"Have I been here long?"  
"Wh-- I thought you had your phone!"  
"I seem to have dropped it somewhere..."  
Ryuji rolls his eyes at the other boy's incredible density. _Yeah,_ he thinks to himself, shaking his head as the other boy turns around and puts his binder back on. Yusuke's fingers intertwine with his own when their hands slip into each other.  
_Same old Yusuke._

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading. please consider leaving a comment if you liked it! as always, check out my free and gay novel, stargazer/trailblazer on smashwords!


End file.
